Michael Pollan

So what I would say about that is you brought up something a minute ago where you said, well, the problem with this theory is that why does so much triviality emerge?

But, I mean, couldn't you just say...

Well, it is over-applied rules.

Like, my biggest complaint about my mind is I think too much about relational stress.

Mm-hmm.

But...

You grow up, you have a family, you're very dependent on caregivers.

It's very easy to imagine how a mind would bend towards really, yeah, I was bullied in school, right?

You know, being out of joint and relationships can really harm you.

So it's not unclear to me how my mind might have overlearned the rule, scan for relational threat at all times.

Right.

And so I'm curious about that learning.

Something is happening over time that is not the same in all people.

It's dependent on life experience.

People who grew up in times of famine tend to store more food when they're older.

There's something happening here.

Talk to me about a state of mind that has come up briefly in our conversation already that I think is between unconscious and goal-directed, which is the wandering mind.

And I think it's something we don't,

I think we have come to diminish its role.

I want to challenge, not that she believes this, but this idea that it's a non-productive form of thought.